I am quilting stars onto a quilt made from the pajamas of my friends Mother who passed away last year. I had to make 2 because she had twins, a boy and a girl. I didn't want to take away from the fabric so I bought clear thread. OMG! I am having so much trouble! It keeps bunching up in the machine and knotting the fabric so I have to keep stopping, cutting and unclogging! It's making me just hate to go anywhere near these quilts!! Please, what am I doing wrong?!! I am 3/4 of the way done with the girls quilt and my husband says I should just use a blue for the boys for the quilting part but again, It just takes away from the Grandmothers pajamas. Please HELP ME!!!

Clear thread can be persnickety, you have to change your thread tension. When I'm using invisible thread I set my thread tension to 2.5. Try doing that and see if that helps. :)

Thank you for responding! I will change the tension and I'll let you know if it works. But, mark my words, if it doesn't. I will NEVER use that thread again!!

I have three different machines, all different manufacturers, and not one will accept invisible thread. I just gave up, not worth the time. Blue sounds nice......

I recently used this for the first time, and was having alot of issues with the tension and looping around the spool pin etc. I had great results from using the free standing spool holder behind the machine. If you havent got one, try placing the bobbin in to a glass behind the machine, good luck :D

OH! Great idea! I will take a look at my machine, I'm pretty sure I do have a free standing spool holder. Thank you!

Just a thought....If the spool has a little nick cut for the end of the thread...make sure this is on the bottom so it doesn't catch on it as it is pulled upwards from the bobbin :D

Izy--I do not have a free standing spool holder, but was having the same problems. I placed my spool in a jar behind my machine and it worked too. I hate using nylon thread for just this reason!!

I use the smoke threads and use sewers ease I think it's called, the same stuff you use when using the metallic threads. Makes it unroll easier... After I started doing that it worked perfectly. Although my old Kenmore hated it and I adjusted the tension for better results. I even use it in the bobbin. Not sure that it's recommended for that but my Janome works well with it.

What are "smoke threads" or "sewers ease"?